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‘The Next Pope’ by Peter Hebblethwaite

Page 4: “Moreover, conclaves did not happen in the Sistine Chapel until after the collapse of the Papal States in 1870.”

Ah! I have tried to parse that statements all which ways until Christmas to see if I was missing something here. But, I am sure it says what it says!

Yes, the 1846, 1831, 1829 & 1823 conclaves were held at the Quirinal Palace and the 1800 conclave in Venice. But the prior 38 conclaves, going back to 1484, were centered around the Sistine. During the first twelve of these, 1484 to 1559, all the cardinals were even billeted inside the Sistine. Thus, in my opinion, that statement is dead wrong.

Page 27: “In the first millennium, popes did not emerge from the college of cardinals, since the cardinals in the modern sense did not exist.”

Ah! Well YOU could play games with the caveat ‘modern sense,’ and say that the ‘College’ didn’t come to be until 1148-1150. But even with that, the spirit of this sentence is SO WRONG. Let us just refer to the 769 Roman Synod convened by Stephen III (IV) and its stipulation that popes must be elected from among cardinal priests and cardinal deacons.

Page 165: “… William Wakefield Baum …, he is the only U.S. cardinal to have ever voted in a conclave — in fact two — having become a cardinal in 1976.”

That ‘ever’ in front of ‘voted’ makes this statement false as it stands. If the caveat ‘living’ is added after the ‘only’ this would work (given that this book was published in 2000). The way it reads is misleading and wrong. James Gibbons voted in the 1903 conclave. John Murphy Farley voted in the 1914 conclave etc. Eight US cardinals participated in the August 1978 conclave and nine in the October 1978 conclave. This should have been caught by an editor. But maybe this book was not edited. That would explain all these fundamental errors.

Page 139: “And after all, the pope lives in Italy …”

This is is post-1929. The pope lives in the sovereign city-state of Vatican City — with even Castel Gandolfo falling within the extraterritorial bounds of the Vatican City. This was obviously meant to be a ‘cute’ statement, but it is inappropriate, misleading and worst of all, wrong.

Not so. The second ballot of each morning and afternoon session is different from the first. For a start there is no need to elect new Scrutineers, Infirmarii and Revisers, or to take a new oath.

Page 32: There is a poem here by the Polish poet Juliusz Slowacki, prefaced by a claim that it forecasts that there would be a Slavic pope [i.e., John Paul II] in the 20th century.

I think it is more than a stretch to make that claim. It sure says, in the first line “… will not — Italian-like — take fright.” Yes, the poet was Polish. But that doesn’t mean that any non-Italian has to be Slavic. This one is not as grave as the prior two, but it still gave me pause.

I love it. I have NOT taken it off my wrist and prior to this I thought I would be unable to sleep with anything on my wrist. It really has made me much more aware of my ‘health’ and I am running 37% longer because it spurs me!

As some of you I am NOT a fan of mobile phones and I do NOT carry one. But, I do have multiple 10″ Android Tablets running Android 7.x, the main one at present being an ASUS ZenPad 10.1″. So, that is my PRIMARY device for syncing with ‘Garmin Connect‘ (though I will also sync, occasionally, on my PC, using the USB connection and ‘Garmin Express‘).

I lose the Bluetooth connection between the Vivoactive HR (running v. 4.0 software) and my ASUS Tablet MORE OFTEN that I would like.

So, over the last few weeks I have figured out these ‘tricks’. I am sharing them in case you are also in my boat — though I realize that I may be the last adult left on Earth who does not carry a smartphone 100% of the time.

The TIPS.

>>PROXIMITY is the key! It loses the connection (by and large) when the Vivoactive and the Android are far apart for long periods.

>> I have found that ‘it’ will automatically connect sometimes without you having to do anything — once you have the two within a reasonably close distance.

>> I have found that ‘it’ will automatically connect OVERNIGHT (i.e., 6 hours+) if you have them with 3′ while you sleep. I just leave my ASUS tablet on the nightstand when I go to sleep.

>> You can try and force a sync from the Vivoactive by going to ‘SETTING’ >>> ‘BLUETOOTH’ >>> ‘SYNC’ — provided the Vivoactive is displaying ‘SYNC’ in addition to ‘PAIR MOBILE DEVICE’. Tap the ‘SYNC’. You should see the Bluetooth download/upload arrows on your Android flashing.

>> I used to go through ‘PAIR DEVICE’ routines to establish connection and that used to work. For the last 4-days I am using the new “Garmin Connect” BETA and the pairing has gone to hell. I told them about it last night. I now let it reconnect overnight.

>> Since I do also need to charge the battery I do sync it, sometimes, using “Garmin Express”.

The “Castle in the Clouds“, indubitably, has the most gorgeous of flower displays around the main, front lawn. At least 3 of the flowers of they had today, shown among the featured six at the very top, were new to me. I was mesmerized. Not sure my pictures do them enough justice. I have more pictures of flowers from there. I will try and do another post.

Anura Guruge the publisher

Featured Anura Guruge Books

Published July 18, 2013.
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Published May 9, 2013.
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Published Sept. 17, 2014.
print $9.50 & ebook $0.99.For those that would like to know the Popes better
Published Sep. 22, 2011.
print $7.50 & ebook $0.99.A good way to teach kids about caring for a puppy